Considerations on COM(2025)140 - Amendment of Regulation (EU) 2021/691 as regards support to workers affected by imminent job displacement in enterprises undergoing restructuring

Please note

This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.

 
 
(1) Regulation (EC) No 1927/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council 3 established the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) for the multiannual financial framework from 1 January 2007 to 31 December 2013. The EGF was established to enable the Union to show solidarity towards workers who lost their jobs as a result of major structural changes in world trade patterns due to globalisation.

(2) The scope of the EGF was broadened in 2009 as part of the European Economic Recovery Plan to include support to workers made redundant as a direct consequence of the global financial and economic crisis.

(3) Regulation (EU) No 1309/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council 4 established the EGF for the period of the multiannual financial framework from 1 January 2014 to 31 December 2020. It also extended the scope of the EGF to cover redundances resulting from any new global financial and economic crisis. Furthermore, Regulation (EU) No 1309/2013 was amended to introduce rules allowing the EGF to exceptionally cover collective applications involving small and medium-sized enterprises located in one region and operating in different economic sectors defined at NACE Revision 2 division 5 level, where the applicant Member State demonstrates that small and medium-sized enterprises are the main or the only type of business in that region.

(4) Regulation (EU) 2021/691 of the European Parliament and of the Council established the EGF for the period of the multiannual financial framework from 1 January 2021-31 December 2027. In order to make the EGF more responsive to the rapidly changing economic challenges in a globalised economy, the scope of the EGF was broadened again to cover any type of large-scale restructuring event, no matter what the cause. A lower threshold better reflects the realities in lesser populated regions. In the light of the twin digital and green transitions, measures that prepare beneficiaries for the twin transition were considered mandatory elements of every coordinated package of personalised measures offered to beneficiaries. Further, the co-financing rates were aligned with the highest co-financing rate of the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) established by Regulation (EU) 2021/1057 of the European Parliament and of the Council 6  in the respective Member State. Additionally, a mandatory beneficiary survey was introduced.

(5) The main Union instrument to assist those workers that have been affected is the ESF+, which is designed to offer assistance in an anticipatory way. The EGF is also designed to offer assistance in response to major restructuring events. However, this set-up does not properly reflect the fact that large-scale restructuring events generally take place over a long time period. Member States can use the ESF+ to upskill and reskill workers, but the ESF+ does not provide support for the upskilling and reskilling of workers in emergency situations such as those in which workers affected by imminent job displacement are. The enterprises where the workers concerned are employed are often in economic difficulty and therefore unable to offer such assistance on their own.

(6) The EGF’s role continues to be important as a flexible instrument to support workers who lose their jobs in large-scale restructuring events and to help them to find other jobs as quickly as possible. The Union should continue to provide specific, one-off support to facilitate the reintegration into decent and sustainable employment of displaced workers in areas, sectors, territories or labour markets suffering from a shock caused by serious economic disruption. The EU has to ensure its sustainable prosperity and competitiveness while preserving its unique social market economy, succeeding in the twin transition, and safeguarding its democracy, economic security and geopolitical standing. To safeguard the EU’s future as an economic powerhouse, and progress on its twin digital and green transition, it is vital to support workers affected by imminent job displacement in enterprises undergoing restructuring so that they can acquire the skills that would help them transfer into a different role, or to change job.

(7) Therefore it is necessary to amend Regulation (EU) 2021/691 so that the EGF can also offer assistance to workers affected by imminent job displacement in enterprises undergoing restructuring. As these workers are still in active employment, their employer may request assistance through the relevant Member States’ authorities. As the EGF is under shared management, it is the Member States’ authorities that can request EGF co-funding upon receipt of a request by an enterprise, provided that the enterprise agrees to provide the national co-funding. Should the financial contribution from the EGF be granted, the Member State concerned should make the funds requested available to the enterprise within two weeks of their receipt. In particular, the enterprise should make available to the Member State all information needed to prepare the final report on the implementation of the relevant financial contribution, not later than six months after the end of the implementation of the assistance. The Commission will prepare a beneficiary survey and the enterprise should share the access to the survey to the workers who participated in the programme.

(8) Given the objective to support workers, the targeted packages supporting workers affected by imminent job displacement have to be designed in a way that excludes any Member State discretion on the eligibility criteria or the selection of beneficiaries. If Member States had discretion as to the use of the EGF resources, in particular as regards the selection of enterprises whose workers would benefit from targeted programmes, EGF resources would be considered as State resources, and therefore should be subject to EU State aid rules.

(9) The support provided to workers affected by imminent job displacement in enterprises undergoing restructuring should take into account existing forms of support available under national measures. Short-time work schemes should not be eligible for EGF support as they do not relate to the displacement of jobs, but to their temporary suspension. If the national measures allow it, the requesting enterprise may subcontract the delivery of the coordinated package of personalised measures, or parts thereof.

(10) The co-financing rate for such measures targeted to workers affected by imminent job displacement in enterprises undergoing restructuring should be equal to the co-financing rate for EGF assistance to displaced workers. Enterprises that request EGF support should provide the national co-financing.

(11) The co-financing rate for expenditure incurred by the Member State in relation to applications for EGF support, including the preparation of applications as well as the monitoring and control of the assistance granted, and in relation to information and publicity measures, should be 100%.

(12) As the workers affected by imminent job displacement are still in active employment, only those active labour market policy measures that help them re- or upskill, that give guidance or mentoring, including measures aimed at workers that could envisage starting their own business one day, should be eligible. Therefore, neither allowances, nor start-up grants should be eligible.

(13) Workers affected by imminent job displacement receiving EGF assistance should remain eligible even if their work relationship ends. They should also remain eligible for possible follow-up applications by the respective Member States in support of displaced workers from the same enterprise.

(14) Given the Commission’s increasing tasks in implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/691, the Commission should be able to request technical assistance of up to 1.5% of the total annual maximum amount of the EGF. The higher rate is also justified since the EGF’s annual maximum amount was lowered in the context of the multiannual financial framework mid-term revision.

(15) To provide swifter support to workers affected by imminent job displacement in enterprises undergoing restructuring or workers made redundant and allow them to benefit from Union solidarity in the current context of economic disruptions and rapid changes, there is a need to accelerate the support given to the workers. One way of doing this is by requiring the Commission to request to the European Parliament and the Council to mobilise the full maximum annual amount at the beginning of each year, if specific conditions are met. The Commission proposal should therefore indicate the circumstances that led the Commission to conclude that the conditions to request full mobilisation of the maximum annual amount, have been met. The Commission proposal should be based on information provided by the Member States at the end of each year. The proposal should include the number of potential applications from each Member State concerned, the sectors of activities concerned, the estimated number of enterprises which could request Member States to apply for EGF support, and the estimated number of workers at risk of imminent job displacement or that have been displaced. The identity of the enterprises concerned should not be revealed if the information is not yet publicly known.

(16) Once the full mobilisation of the maximum annual amount is approved by the European Parliament and the Council, the Commission should adopt financing decisions on individual applications and should be required to immediately inform the European Parliament and the Council of the adoption of those decisions. If the full mobilised maximum annual amount is not used by the Commission in a given year, that amount would lapse at the end of the financial year.

(17) The proposed amendments will be fully accommodated with Article 8 of Council Regulation 2020/2093 7 , as well as with point 9 of the Interinstitutional Agreement of 16 December 2020 8 .

(18) This Regulation should enter into force as a matter of urgency to swiftly provide support to the workers affected on the day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.